Team Work

In most middle schools teachers operate in "teams." There are leadership teams, department teams, grade-level CLTs, and grade-level interdisciplinary teams. Although I am a player on all of the teams I mentioned, it is the last one which is truly the heart of the middle school model when it comes to supporting students both academically and socially.

Consisting of 80-120 heterogeneously grouped students and 5-8 core teachers who plan instruction, collaborate on field trips and other special events, and meet weekly with counselors and administrators to troubleshoot student concerns and coordinate services, and, oh yes, teach, the middle school team is an amazing institution when it works.

Every team has a leader, and I have had the privilege of being my team's leader for the last eighteen years. During that time at least 25 people have come and gone, but there have been three of us who have remained constant. At the end of each term it has become customary for my team to present me with a card and a gift. I always appreciate their appreciation, because truth be told, it is a lot of work. Even so, I don't really mind the time it takes, because our team works so well together to provide our students with the best possible sixth grade year. It totally seems worth the effort.

My team gave me this year's card as we stood in the empty hallway Thursday afternoon just a few moments after waving good-bye to the buses. In the happy glow of almost-summer, I basked in the kindness of their words and the warmth of their gratitude.

"You guys make it easy!" 

At Long Last

The final day of the school year has arrived. After the students left yesterday I finished packing my room and  wrapped my bookcases so neatly that I was tempted to add a bow and a tag reading Do not open until August 25.

Today, we spent our last morning at school tying up a few loose ends, writing thank-you notes, and saying good-bye to colleagues. Then it was lobster rolls for lunch followed by a matinee of Finding Dory.

Summer really is here!

At What Expense?

One of the toughest kids of my career has been sitting in my class all year. Impulsive and often brutish, his unfortunate life circumstances paired with a clear desire to be successful and lead his peers creates a quandary for most of the adults in his life.

Unfortunately, he seems aware of our uncertainty on some level, and so he is also skilled at manipulation. To be honest, I have not had many issues with him that I was not able to handle, but I have to acknowledge that he receives an unproportionate amount of my attention, which could be construed as unfair to the other 20 kids in the room.

On the second to last day of the year I confiscated his iPad for inappropriate use and was set to call his mom and tell her we would keep it at school for the summer. "No!" he begged me. "She won't let me go to Kentucky with my aunt to see my dad's family! I'll be grounded! Give me a chance! I'll be perfect all day!"

And he was. As I was handing him the device he smiled and thanked me. "I wasn't going to come tomorrow," he told me, "but I had such a great day today that now I am!"

I smiled weakly and clapped him on the shoulder. "OK! Let's have another good day tomorrow, too! See you then."

A few minutes later one of my homeroom students came to collect his bookbag. "I don't think I'm going to be here tomorrow," he said dejectedly.

"Really?" I asked, for it was news to me. "Are you guys going away?"

"No," he shook his head. And then he told me how that other student had been bothering him for weeks and that not two minutes ago he had grabbed his violin and smashed it to the ground. "That's a three hundred dollar piece of equipment!" he said. "I don't think there's any damage, but I've had enough."

"What about your teacher for a day presentation?" I asked him. "You've worked so hard on it! I think you should come!"

He shrugged. "Maybe, but I don't think so. I would really appreciate it if you would tell the principal for me."

And with that he left to catch his bus.

I informed administration, and the other student and his mom had the choice of him staying home or being in in-school suspension all day. 

Denying the whole thing, he chose to come to school.

The other boy? 

Did not.

Bronze Medalists

Yesterday was the day that I asked my students to calculate their independent reading for the year. Each week they turn in a log that tracks their pages and books, and one of the final tasks of the term is for them to crunch those numbers and look at their accomplishments.

This year...

drum roll, please...

my students read...

676,701 pages and 3337 books!

That's an average of 9,531 pages and 47 books per student, which is more than double the minimum requirement of 4000 pages.

Looking at the stats for this year, the thing that stands out to me is that there were very few students who did not make the minimum. This is different than in the past, and it might be due to the increased popularity of graphic novels. Many, many students choose to read those, and by their nature as quick reads, graphic books increase the page counts.

The prevailing wisdom among teachers is that the genre is not relevant, and that as reading fluency is a skill that improves with exercise, we simply want students to read. Perhaps, but I personally encourage my students to alternate graphic novels with traditional texts.

Here's how this group stacks up to their peers from the past:

2016: pages: 9,531; books: 47
2015: pages: 7,342; books: 33
2014: pages: 5,200; books: 26
2013: pages: 9,835; books: 47
2012: pages: 5,356
2011: pages: 10, 788; books: 49
2010: pages: 8,488; books: 40

(Click on the label below to review the posts from past years!)

Head Games

With two more days of school left the students are having a tough time keeping it together. Despite lovely lessons on American history and drawing anime eyes, I still found myself questioning a kid about what the guy next to him had actually said.

"I don't know," he told me. And when I raised my eyebrows in disbelief, he added, "I don't remember," and shrugged.

I think it was the shrug that got me, because it is my third-to-last day, too. "Really?" I said to him. "Then you must need a pass to the clinic."

He looked at me, confused.

"If you can't remember what happened 2 minutes ago, I think you should go talk to the nurse!" I snapped.

Strategic Implication

Pushing on the Stone of Hope was not an issue today, although I did tell my group of six super-smart, super-rambunctious boys that I was going to have to stay in the Mountain of Despair if they didn't curb their, ahem, enthusiasm a bit.

To their credit? They totally got what I was saying, and their behavior improved.

Cultural Competence

Is it somehow disrespectful to take a photograph of someone pushing on the Martin Luther King monument?

The part that has the sculpture of Dr. King is called the "Stone of Hope," and it has been visibly removed from the other section which is called the "Mountain of Despair." The park service describes it like this:

From the looming Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope surges forward as the focal point for the memorial. This references a line in King’s speech, “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.”

My idea when designing the tasks for the photo scavenger hunt tomorrow was that students would snap a picture of their group pushing on the stone to move it even farther from the mountain to symbolically become part of the solution. It would be fun and meaningful at the same time.

But, when we went down there today to test run the hunt, I felt a little uncomfortable with that particular photo op, and I'm not sure why.

Thoughts?